Minimalist
syntax and Core
syntax are reasonably good textbooks. They should be very helpful indeed in teaching a syntax course on current Principles and Parameters theory (P&P; Chomsky 1981) that focuses on the Minimalist Program (MP; Chomsky 1995, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005). The books present a range of syntactic phenomena, which are for the most part discussed lucidly and illustrated by considerable relevant data. Nevertheless, the books are not pedagogically faultless and the pedagogical faults are often due to underlying theoretical problems.

Footnotes

1 We would like to thank David Adger, Bob Borsley, Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy, Paul Kiparsky, Jason Merchant, Diane Nelson, Chris Potts, Andrew Radford, Charles Reiss, Peter Sells, and Gary Tso for their comments and suggestions. Thank you also to the people at JL: two anonymous referees, Ewa Jaworska, Maggie Tallerman and Bob Borsley, once more, in his editorial capacity. All remaining imperfections are our own.